Domestic Roaming may get cheaper In India as TRAI calls for 80% rate cut

Call and messaging charges for Domestic Roaming in India may decrease after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday proposed sharp 35% and 80% cuts, respectively, to the maximum rates that operators can charge for these services.

“In view of the lack of competition witnessed in the present national roaming services market, the Authority is of the opinion that the best way forward is to prescribe costbased ceiling tariffs for voice calls while on national roaming,” Trai said in a draft amendment to its Tariff Order of 1999. “Through the Amendment Order, the Authority intends to reduce the ceiling tariffs for national roaming services.”

Trai has sought comments from stakeholders by March 13. It would notify the Amendment Order after considering, and incorporating if necessary, the views of the stakeholders.

“We are still assessing the impact of this (roaming) tariff cut. Even though roaming constitutes less than 8% of the total mobile industry revenue, the government seems to be just chipping all sources of revenue to the operators,” Rajan Mathews, director general of the GSM industry body, COAI said.